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UNRIC Campaigns

In order to inform, but also engage, the European public in the work of the United Nations, we decided, in 2007, to launch an annual European public information campaign choosing the most relevant theme for our European audience from the UN’s priorities for that year, but also taking into account the priorities of our governmental, institutional and civil society partners.

In 2008, we chose the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and KnowYourRights2008 became our first campaign. The UN’s Climate Change Conference, held in December 2009, in Copenhagen was the setting for our second campaign entitled CoolPlanet2009.

In 2010 we marked the 10th anniversary of the Millennium Declaration and highlighted the Millennium Development Goals by organizing our first UN European Ad Competition - WeCanEndPoverty2010.

And in 2012 Rio+20 is the natural choice and we have chosen "Water" as the main theme.

KnowYourRights2008

To claim Your Rights you have to know them. To mark the 60th anniversary of arguably the most important document of the 20th century, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we asked citizens all over Europe to post their plans and initiatives to mark Human Rights Day 2008 on our Wall of Events.

WeCanEndPoverty2010

In 2010 our campaigns evolved in nature and we decided to reach out to the European creative community asking them to help us remind world leaders of their historic promise in the year 2000 at the Millennium Summit to put an end to absolute poverty by the year 2015. We also joined forces with other UN Information Centres across the European continent and partnered with major European newspapers to spread the word. We were not disappointed; we received over 2,000 submissions from 32 countries.

Create4theUN: Say No To Violence Against Women

Another innovation in 2011 was the addition of a name for our competition - Create4theUN. We joined forces with UN-Women and asked creative Europeans to think of ads with the theme “Say No to Violence Against Women.” We received over 2,700 entries from 42 countries.

Rio+20: The Future We Want - Drop by drop

The European ad competition was part of The Future We Want, the UN's global campaign in the lead up to the Rio+20 Conference which took place in June 2012.

The competition called on professionals and non-professionals in all 48 European countries to design a newspaper advertisement, using the competition logo, which inspired inspired others to preserve water, now and for future generations.

We received a record number of submission with over entries from 45 countries.

The Brussels based United Nations Regional Information Centre for Western Europe - UNRIC provides information on UN activities to the countries of the region. It also provides liaison with institutions of the European Union in the field of information. Its outreach activities extend to all segments of society and joint campaigns, projects and events are organized with partners including the EU, governments, the media, NGOs, schools and local authorities.